New veterans memorial dedicated in Upper Pottsgrove

UPPER POTTSGROVE — More than 100 people turned out on Armed Forces Day for the dedication of the township’s first and only veterans memorial.

“Veterans are sometimes forgotten,” state Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, R-24th Dist., herself an Army combat veteran, told the gathering Saturday. “Memorials like this remind us to keep them in our hearts and in our prayers.”

Robert Boyce, a retired nuclear submarine captain, said the nation’s armed services are “an honorable way” to advance to a better life in America.

“My father graduated from sixth grade, my mother from fifth grade,” but after his father returned home from World War II, his parents got together every payday and “counted out the money to make sure they could pay for me to go to Catholic school. I got to where I am today because my parents cared enough to move me along.”

He also moved along with the help of the Reserve Officer Training Corps, which sent him to the University of Pennsylvania and ultimately to the command of two submarines, the USS Sea Devil and a Trident nuclear-armed submarine.

“When we are powerful, that provides deterrence, and that’s what our freedom brings us,” said Boyce. “I am grateful to the people who made this happen and to the veterans it honors.”

State Rep. Donna Schueren, R-147th Dist., made sure everyone knew the “people who made this happen,” most particularly Dennis Elliott, who worked for seven years to gather partners and money to get the memorial designed and built.

Elliott, she said, “is a great patriot,” adding that “red, white and blue flows through his veins more than anyone else I know.”

Also key to the effort, she said, were the Greater Pottstown Foundation, the Transplant Alliance, Hopewell Community Church, Township Manager Michelle Reddick, the township commissioners and Upper Pottsgrove Police Chief James Fisher, many of whom were called to the podium to receive commendations from the House of Representatives.

Elliott, who served as master of ceremonies but shies away from the spotlight shining on him, read the names of every Upper Pottsgrove veteran, living and dead.

The memorial, said Jason Cooley, worshipful master of the Stichter Masonic Lodge in Pottstown, of which Elliott is a member, said the memorial reminds citizens “that we are truly indebted to our veterans for everything they’ve done, and continue to do.”

Montgomery County Commissioners Chairman Neil Makhija, who presented a proclamation recognizing the effort to create the memorial, said his son’s grandfather served during World War II, “and that must seem like ancient history to him. But by creating this memorial, we bring that service to the present.”

The Rev. Bruce Mulberry, pastor of Hopewell Community Church, reminded those there that many veterans “have walked through the terrible circumstances of war,” and many come home as different people.

“You think when you take off the uniform, you go back to being a citizen, but you’re never just a civilian,” said Pennycuick.

Makhija said the country, and the county, must do more, and Montgomery County is doing more, to help those veterans who suffer as a result of their service.

“An astonishing number of our homeless people are veterans. It is one in four,” he said. “Our veterans need to be cared for. They don’t deserve to be sleeping on the streets. Because without their unwavering commitment to the idea of this country, we wouldn’t be here today.”